Bio
“Feet, what do I need you for when I have wings to fly?"
Frida Kahlo
I have been painting since about 2021. I didn't grow up in an artistic family, though my mother began painting for a short period after I was in college. Artistic life was not encouraged in my schools. I was the first in my family to attend college, and it never occurred to me that someone could aspire to be a creative person. As a result, I didn't find my visual voice until the age of 60, after stage four kidney cancer forced me into early retirement.
I paint colorful, loosely interpreted Kentucky landscapes, and architectural and animal portraits, in gouache. Unlike many of today's landscape painters, I am not a plein air painter, despite for years having been an avid hiker and documenter of the built environment. But after decades of life-saving cancer treatments, my body is often unable to physically carry me to places I easily visited in the past. Like my artistic inspiration, Frieda Kahlo, who famously suffered from chronic pain herself, today I find solace in painting these magical landscapes from my studio. Painting offers me wings to figuratively fly to places once again.
After choosing my subject, from my studio I research each site, collecting dozens of images from various angles and seasons, sorting through histories and legends, and drawing from my memories. Once I finish, I choose the composition and color theme I feel will best represent the subject. Taking artistic inspiration from Georgia O'Keeffe, another of my painting mentors, I typically choose intimate compositions, often directing the viewer much closer than they would normally venture. My goal is not to copy a reference photo. Even if I could, there are others much more skilled at representational painting than I. Instead of documenting a site, I want to challenge the viewer's expectation of the landscape. I have found I can come closest to accomplishing my goal through color freedom. While many of the colors I choose can be found at the site, I exaggerate them to better express what the subject means to me, and how it makes me feel. I found gouache, an opaque watercolor that dries vibrant and mat, can best express the color freedom I desire.
I hope my chosen process and medium will help transport others to these magical places and subjects, both those who have been there before, plan on visiting in the future, and especially those who may never be able to physically visit these magical spaces themselves. May my paintings give them wings to fly directly into their majesty.